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** The Ultimate Odyssey^2 and Odyssey^3 FAQ **
** **
** by Robert D. Kaiser **
** kaiser@physiology.pnb.sunysb.edu **
** kaiser@biosys.net **
** **
** Version 5/12/99 **
** **
** Odyssey2 Philips G7000 and G7200 **
** **
** Odyssey3 Command Center Philips Videopac + G7400 **
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* In the Beginning *
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Our story begins back in 1966 with Ralph Baer, a manager in Sanders Associates,
a military electronics company which had a home consumer division. Baer came up
with the idea of using electronics to create a videogame that could be played on
home television sets. The management at Sanders approved of this project, and so
with two other engineers he began work on his dream. By late 1967 a prototype home
videogame had been created. With the prototype completed, he set about marketing
his game to companies like Zenith, RCA and General Electric, with the hopes of having
it mass produced.
A few years later he finally managed to market the game to Magnavox electronics, which
began production of the Odyssey [aka the Odyssey 1] in January 1972. Once released,
it sold over 100,000 units that year, at about $100 per system. Compared to later
8-bit videogames, the Oydssey 1 was quite primitive. The system could only display
black and white blocks, moving dots and plain straight lines. It was unable to keep
score or have any background graphics, nor did it have sound effects. Still, engineers
at other companies - especially Atari - were impressed with the commercial
possibilities of the Odyssey. Others began work at adapting the primitive arcade
videogames of the day, such as "Pong", into something that could also be sold as a
home videogame. By 1974, Atari released a home version of Pong. In 1974, Magnavox
merged with Philips Electronics, the high tech company responsible for such innovations
as the compact disc. Together, these two companies became Philips Consumer Electronics.
Headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee, their homepage can be accessed at:
http://www.philipsmagnavox.com/index.html
Not to be outdone by Atari, in 1975 Maganavox/Philips then released an improved version
of their videogame, the Odyssey 100. This was soon followed by a few later models, each
with a few small improvements and game variaitions. Those interested in the original
Odyssey units can learn more about it in Shaun 'Loomis' Gegan's Odyssey 1 FAQ, at
http://www.digitpress.com/faqodyssey1.txt
In 1976 Fairchild Electronics came up with the idea of using ROM (read-only memory)
cartridges for their own "Channel-F" videogame system. With this innovation, each
videogame could be completely unique; however their game system was too primitive
and never caught on. The big news, however was just ahead: By December 1977 Atari
released the programmable Video Computer System, the Atari VCS (which was later
renamed the Atari 2600.) Readers of this essay are undoubtably familiar with this
system; more description would be superfluous. RCA also released their own home
video game system this same year, the "Studio II". For some reason they decided to
release a machine that was only capable of producing black and white images, which
did not go over well with the consumers in home electronics marketplace.
Near the same time, in early 1977, Maganox had developed a non-programmable game
console that they called the Odyssey 2. It would not have the ability to add new
games through cartridges, but instead would have 24 built in games, and allow up to
four people to play simultaneously. Soon afterward, however, the videogame market
became crowded with a number of other enteries all of which had to compete not only
with each other, but also with the large number of inexpensive hand held electronic
games. The resulting market difficulties convinced Magnavox not to market this
incarnation of the 24-game Odyssey 2. To date, I am not aware of any classic
videogame collectors who own a prototype of this unit.
In 1978 Magnavox released a new videogame system for the home market: The Odyssey^2.
This new unit bore no relation to the scapped 24-game system. Instead, it was a fully
programable home video game systerm that was designed to use 2K ROM game cartridges.
Like the Atari VCS, the CPU of the O^2 was powerful enough such that each game could
be a completely unique experience, with its own background graphics, foreground
graphics, gameplay, scoring and music. The potential was enormous, as an unlimited
number of games could be individually purchased. Like the Atari 2600, the Odyssey^2
allowed any game player to purchase a library of videogames tailored to his or her own
interest.
Unlike any other system at that time, the Odyssey^2 also included a full alpha-numeric
touchpad keyboard, which was to be used for educational games, selecting game options
or programming. This was a major selling point of the system.
For hand held controllers, the Odyssey^2 utilized the classic joystick design of the
1970s and 80s: A moderately sized, self centering eight way joystick. It was held in
the left hand, and manipulated with the right hand. In the upper corner of the
joystick was a single 'Action' button. A credit to the designers at Maganavox, three
or four years later, with Atari, Intellivision, and a number of third party companies
producing hardware, many people still felt that the Odyssey^2 joystick was one of the
best designed.
By 1981, Atari and Intellivison sales had grown in leaps and bounds beyond the O^2.
Nevertheless, unlike some unnamed videogame companies, (hint: their name rhymes with
Vega) Philips kept on supporting the O^2. Their programmers's slow but steady
improvements in gameplay and graphics made sure that O^2 owners could always count on
more and better games being made available. Even without massive third party support,
by 1983 over a million O^2 units were sold in North America alone.
It is less well known that the Odyssey^2 was even more popular in Europe, where it was
marketed by Magnavox's parent company, Philips Electronics. In Europe (and in other
parts of the world as well) the O^2 was sold as the Philips G7000 Videopac console.
In France, it was known as the Philips C52. In Brazil it was known as the Odyssey,
as the original Odyssey was never released in Brazil.
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* The American Odyssey^2 videogame programmers *
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(i) Steve Lehner
(ii) Sam Overton, who also was an engineer on the O^2 hardware. He wrote S.I.D. the
Spellbinder and many of the early O^2 games.
(iii) Ed Averett. He left Intel to program Odyssey^2 games under contract. Magnavox
didn't have the big bucks to hire him, so they gave him royalties instead. He
made 24 games, and retired very rich.
The Winter 1982 issue of the Odyssey^2 Adventure Club magazine stated that
Philips/Magnavox had four in house videogame programmers, and in addition to listing
the above three, also listed Linda Averett, wife of Ed Averett. Matthew Pritchard
notes: "She didn't actually program anything for the O^2, but is a heck of a
computer scientist in her own right. Ed included her in the credits so she wouldn't
feel left out. Mistake on his part as he quickly found out and she was quite ired at
being credited for something she didn't do."
That issue of the Odyssey^2 magazine did not mention the later videogame programers:
(iv) Bob Harris. Programmed Killer Bees, Nimble Numbers N.E.D., "War Room" on the
Probe 2000 label for Colecovision, and also worked on the never released
Colecovision version of "Power Lords".
(V) Rex Battenberg - Programmed "Flashpoint", a never released game for the Odyssey^3
Command Center, and "Lord of the Dungeons",the never released Probe 2000 game for
Colecovision.
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* The Odyssey^2 games *
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At the time of their release, the original games available for the Odyssey^2 were
nothing short of remarkable. Its hard to estimate how many gamers with a love for
racing spent their weekend with "Speedway!/Spin-Out!/Crypto-Logic!". The roar of
the motors, and high speed chases and tight turns! The explosive crashes! Yes sir,
those were hours well spent. Beyond racing, friends could spend all night working
against world peace by destroying each other's tanks, planes and subs with "Sub
Chase!/Armored Encounter!". And with "Bowling/Basketball!" all the O^2 owners
could...well, get bored. That one sucked.
An innovation that wasn't matched for years on any other system was the special
cartridge "Computer Intro!". Not a game at all, this was actually a system that
allowed you to learn assembly language. Using the huge instruction book provided;
you could actually program the Odyssey^2. While few people had the inclination or
patience to work with this, for those who did it was a learning experience that they
treasure forever.
Among the initial games were a lot of sports simulations, such as Baseball, Football
and Hockey/Soccer. Hockey/Soccer was especially fun, as when a puck was just in
between two opposing players, they would turn and bang their sticks at each other
in a raucous fight. It does seem likely that this was more of a programming flaw
than an intended feature, but it sure added charm to the game.
One of the low point for the system was one of their early sci-fi shooters, "Alien
Invaders - Plus!". The "Plus" was probably supposed to signify a few advances in
gameplay over earlier games in the "Space Invaders" genre, but frankly, this game
should have been titled "Alien Invaders - Minus!". First, the two really good
points. During the entire battle, one of the alien mother ships was always flitting
back and forth at the top of the screen. I have to admit, for the Odyssey^2 (or
even the Atari), the animation for it was really cool. Sort of like a space-octopus
with a giant eye in the center that could lauch laser blasts at you. Second, it was
kind of cool that when your spaceship was destroyed, it wouldn't totally be gone.
Instead you would then be left with your unprotected character, depicted as a little
man, that would have to run to some nearby blast shelter where he could obtain a new
ship (if he wasn't fried by incoming laser blasts). So what were the problems?
Aside from the alien mother ship, the graphics were terrible, and so was the sound.
Further, the gameplay simply wasn't much fun. It was a poor clone of "Space Invaders",
and Magnavox frankly should not have released it without an overhall on its gameplay.
In later years, Mattel released some really outstanding sports games for the Atari 2600
under the "M-Network" label, which surpassed anything previously seen on the Atari
2600, the Odyssey^2 or Bally Astrovision. These games redefined the state of the art
for 8 bit sports gaming. Unfortunately, Philips evidently didn't think that the O^2
could handle games of this complexity, or at least didn't think that such games would
be profitable; thus O^2 owners never got to see improved versions of any sports games.
That's too bad, because a large number of videogame buyers are also sports fans. When
they saw that the Mattel's games for the Atari or Intellivision far surpassed those
available on the O^2, it gave the O^2 a black eye. This probably was one of the main
factors that caused the O^2 to lose its market share.
Really, the less said about most O^2 sports games, the better. I could give a review of
"Football!", "Baseball", "Electronic Volleyball", or "Alpine Skiing", but really, what's
the point? The graphics and sound were not good, and neither was the gamplay. Sure, at
the time that these games were released, they probably were pretty good, and I'm sure
that many people enjoyed them for many hours. But their problem is that these games
didn't stand up to the test of time. No, I don't mean by that to imply that they aren't
good compared to today's games. A real classic game player would never make such a
comparison! What I mean is that even two years later, still in the middle of the O^2's
life cycle, these games already were outdated and dull, so anyone who wanted good sport
games had to go to another system.
In contrast, the other O^2 games that I will below mention more favorably below did past
the short-scale test of time. Even by 1983 and 1984 the following games were all still
as fun as the later games on competing systems.
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* The Challenger Series and Master Strategy Games *
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What really brought people to love the system were the expanded memory 'Challenger
series' games, which were now doubled to 4k ROM. "U.F.O.!" was more or less the
Odyssey^2 version of Asteroids, and it _rocked_. Unlike the Atari 2600, the O^2
could have up to 16 objects moving around the screen at once, so there was never
any of that terribly annoying Atari-flicker which made so many of their on-screen
characters look like see-through ghosts. Nowhere was the O^2 advantage in this
respect more obvious than "U.F.O!". Another strong entry in this series was "Freedom
Fighter", modeled after the arcade hit "Defender". The home version of "Defender for
the Atari 2600 had great playability, but terrible on-screen flicker. The O^2 clone
had bigger characters, no flicker, and smoother game play, and in these respects was
superior. On the other hand, the Atari version had the landscape and viewer, and
this gave the feeling of flying over a vast terrain, a feeling that was lacking in
the O^2 version.
When it came to making original games, few could forget the adorable animation of the
monkeys climbing around the monkey-bars in "Monkeyshines!". And when it came to
making clones, no one came closer to the arcade's Pac-Man than the Odyssey^2 classic
"K. C. Munchkin". Unlike the - let's face it - incredibly ugly version of Pac-Man
that Atari foisted upon its gamers, "K.C. Munchkin" had huge, brightly colored
monsters, with fine animation, and not a trace of that 'Atari-flicker' that plagued
Pac-Man. Unfortunately, Magnavox came a bit too close, and their game was ruled to
be a patent infringement on Atari's rights; Magnavox was forced to withdraw K.C. from
the shelves. Of course, soon after Magnavox released its first ever sequel game
"K.C.'s Krazy Chase", which had the original K.C. tumbling around in a similar maze,
but with all new gameplay, as K.C. had to face off against the dreaded "Dratapillar".
Its hard to explain the game if you have never seen it, but if you let Pac-Man lose in
'Centipede' you'd come close to imagining it. Trivia: It was named after K. C. Mencken,
president of N.A.P. at that time.
One of the most engaging Challenger series games for the O^2 was an action packed
platformer called "Pick-Axe-Pete". Bob Harris writes: "This was originally supposed to
be Hammerin' Hank. But after losing the copyright case over K.C. Munchin being, er,
inspired by PacMan, the powers that be decided that a hammer would make this game too
similar to Donkey Kong."
In the final version of Pick Axe-Pete, you controlled an animated miner, using a
pick-axe to dig out gold from a multitude of dangerous spinning, bouncing boulders.
While the 8-bit home versions Donkey-Kong had the advantage of being based on the
incredibly popular arcade game, Pick-Axe-Pete, at least on the early 8-bit systems,
was the superior game. Sure, one problem was that there were no background graphics;
all objects were purely foreground. Still, the gameplay was fantastic. You could use
your controller to make Pete walk, climb, jump, and duck. Pete could grap pick-axes
and keys, and even leap across chasms. And unlike earlier O^2 games, the boulders
weren't inanmiate, smoothly moving objects. These boudlers, monochrome as they were,
were alive. They spun and twisted, roller and bounced. As you moved from level to
level the action of the boulders increased to a frentic pace, and you could hardly
smash them fast enough to clear a space for you to move safely. Unlike most O^2 games,
there was even a second screen in which you saw Pete falling from one section of the
mine to the next. Sure, it was all low-res, but the point is that it was low-res
_well-done_. One of the nice touches was that the programmers didn't use the standard
low resolution, O^2 characters to depict Pete. Instead they used a number of higher-
resolution sprites to animate Pete in a more realistic fashion.
One of the strongest points of the system was its excellent speech synthesis unit, "The
Voice of Odyssey^2", which was released as a hardware add-on for speech synthesis,
music, and sound-effects enhancement. Compared to the similar voice synthesis systems
of that time period, the "Voice of Odyssey^2 was one of the better products.
Pick-Axe-Pete and K.C. Munchkin were just two of a number of Odyssey^2 games inspired
by or based on arcade hits. Another high-point for the O^2 system was "Attack of the
Timelord", an old school space shooter loosely based on Galaxian. As usual, the game
had no background graphics, and the alien spaceships were all one piece, with no
details or animation. But the _way_ in which these alien spacecraft moved was truly
an artistic trimuph for the system. A series of eight flying saucers would fly down
from the top of the screen, and dart across the playing field in a twisting, frentic
and serpentine path. When one of the was destoyed by one of your missles, in exploded
in a beautiful geometric array or light and sound. In between levels, there was an
intermission screen where you would be taunted by the on-screen face of Spyruss-the-
Deathless. Best yet, this game was enhanced for use with the Voice of Odyssey^2.
While voice in a videogame may not seem like a big deal today, back in 1982 this thing
rocked! Finally, with the relased of "Attack of the Timelord", the Odyssey^2 had a
space-shooter that rivaled that of any other 8-bit game out there.
One game that I absolutely have to mention in conjunction with "The Voice" is
"Smithereens". Set in medieval times, there are two of the standard O^2 men, on
opposing sides of the screen. Each has a Castle to defend, and a catapult to defend
it with. Between the castles lies an open field, interupted by a body of water. Your
objective? Hurl stones at the opponent's castle until it crumble to dust. His
objective? The same! The gameplay itself shoud not have been all that engaging, yet
with the fantastic sound effects provided by the "the Voice", it was all that and
more. You'd hear the whooshing of the rock as it catapulted through the sky, and an
extremely realistic crash as the boudler smashed into the castle. If you really
messed up, you could even hear realistic sounds of your boulder plopping into the lake.
It's hard to describe in print, but playing it with all the sound effects was just
outstanding. A couple of years ago I pulled the game out of storage, and played it with
a few of my housemates. Now when they saw the graphics, they literally laughed out
loud. They were used to today's PC, PSX and N64 games, and calling any 8-bit machine a
'videogame' seemed like a joke to them. Then they tried it. An hour later we were all
still hurling boulders at each other, laughing and joking, and enjoying the low-res
virtual carnage. Gaming doesn't get much better than that!
The area that the Odyssey^2 may well be best remembered for was its pioneering fusion of
board and video-games: The Master Strategy Series. The first game released was the
instant classic "The Quest for the Rings!", with gameplay somewhat similar to Dungeons
and Dragons, and a storyline reminiscent of J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings".
In the eyes of many gamers, there was nothing that could hold a candle to this game.
Another title in this series was "Conquest of the World". The gameplay and graphics
were an improvment over the previous O^2 war game, "Sub Chase!/Armored Encounter!"
However where the game really shined was that it allowed the players to interject a
certain amount of politcal and strategic realism into the battles. Finally, the last
Master Strategy game released was "The Great Wall Street Fortune Hunt", which allowed
people to realistically learn about and simulate stock-trading.
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* Let's end on a high note! *
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Near the end of its commercial lifespan, the O^2 programmers learned how to wring more
power out of the machine, and they released great games such as "Attack of the
Timelord!" , "Turtles", "Killer Bees" and "Power Lords". All of these games exhibited
more detailed graphics, fast and exciting gameplay, and good design.
Concerning Killer Bees, Bob Harris writes: "I was experimenting with a lot of different
techniques with KB, most of which stayed in the released version. The death concept
was a little unusual. It may not be obvious, but you actually lose bees (in your
swarm) gradually. The longer you are in contact with the bad swarm, the more bees you
lose. I don't know if anyone ever figured this out - the reviewer at Games Magazine
(Burt Hochberg) asked why I didn't allow multiple lives like every other game did.
Similarly, your opponents (which I called BeeBots, I don't recall what the rule book
actually calls them) die slowly as they are stung. Another experiment that I took out
was scoring in thousandths. I had grown tired of games where every score was some
multiple of a million, and the scores looked to be really high. I set out to prove
a point, and made KB score in units of .001. So you'd play and play and play, and then
you might say, geez, I got a 4 (4.063). It was very disappointing!"
One of my personal O^2 favorites is "Turtles". It is the one O^2 game that was a
licensed arcade coin-op translation. In it, you played a mother turtle scurring
around a maze, trying to find her baby turtles to bring safely back home. In your
path were a number of animated beetles that could harm you; you could only
temporarilly stun with a bug bomb, a small number of which you could pick up at
various points in the arena. With the completion of each level, you were treated
to an animated intermission showing your Turtle and her adversaries climbing up a
ladder to the next level. To add to this, there was even an animated opening
screen - something very rare in Odyssey^2 games. This game also made good use of
"The Voice" to provide two different melodies to accompany the gameplay. But of
course, the final test is gameplay, and here this game again suceeded brilliantly.
I spent more time on this game than just about any other O^2 game there was, even
Demon Attack, so that's saying something.
For quite some time, Odyssey^2 fans griped that the number of new games was very
limited, due to there being no third party support in the USA. Howeever, unbeknownst
to American gamers, the success of the Philips G7000 Videopac overseas led to two
other companies to produce games for it: Parker Brothers released Popeye, Frogger,
Q*Bert and Super Cobra, while Imagic released outstanding versions of their hit games,
Demon Attack and Atlantic. Finally, in 1983 the two Imagic games were brought to the
United States; "Demon Attack" and "Atlantis". These became strong sellers for the
Odyssey^2. Contrary to the skeptical expectations of some, the Odyssey^2 versions of
both Demon Attack and Atlantis managed to captured all of the gameplay and most of the
graphics of the Atari 2600 version. Demon Attack's graphics are probably the best the
system ever saw.
Around 1983, the videogame market began to contract, which would end in the infamous
videogame 'crash' of 1984. In this time period Philips saw the O^2 lose its remaining
market share. Many home videogame companies folded entierly, or went into serious
debt. In order to compete, North American Philips/Magnavox developed their own next
generation 8 bit system, code named the Odyssey^3. Later press releases termed it the
Odyssey Command Center.
The Odyssey^3 Command Center was to have 16k ROM, 16k RAM, and a capacity for detailed
background and foreground graphics. The keyboard was redesigned to have more keys, and
a real computer keyboard was added in place of the Odyssey^2's flat plastic membrane.
There was a built in joystick holder, so that one person could use both joysticks at
once, for arcade style games. The unit also had a number of planned accessories:
Prototypes of a voice synthesizer and a 300 baud modem were created. Fruther, Philips
planned to develop an interface to connect the O^3 to Philips laserdis players, which
would allow the machine to play extremely sophisticated games. The Odyssey^3 Command
Center was hyped to the US press, and previewed at the 1983 Consumer Electronics show.
It never was released. Leonard Herman's "Phoenix: The Fall and Rise of Home
Videogames" states:
Things looked hopeful for Odyssey when the year [1983] began, although it
abandoned its plans to market the Odyssey^3. This had been done because
excecutives at the company felt that the O^3 didn't advance enough
technologically to compete against the inexpensive computers that were on
the market. Instead... Odyssey turned to a new direction. [They soon
announced the creation of] Probe 2000, a new line of software for competing
videogame and computer systems. The first title that Odyssey announced was
'Pursuit of the Pink Panther'. By October Odyssey released one Colecovision-
compatible game called "War Room". Unfortunately, it was to be the only
game that would be released under the Probe 2000 banner. A severe chip
shortage caused the company to scrap all of its other titles since it
couldn't hope to get them out in time for the critical Christmas season.
Following this disaster, [the American branch of] Odyssey decided to abandon
the industry that it created altogether.
For years, American classic videogame collectors searched for prototypes of the
Odyssey^3 Command Center. In time, it became a holy grail of classic videogame
collecting among those collectors who knew that a few prototypes existed.
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* The Holy Grail Discovered! *
*****************************************************************
In 1995 I became one of the very few American game collectors to discover that Philips
had indeed released the Odyssey^3, and was the first to publicise this information on
the Internet. As I found out, the Odyssey^3 was indeed sold in 1983 and 1984. It was
sold only in Europe, and was dubbed the Philips Videopac + G7400. The Videopac +
console had almost exactly the same internal hardware as the American Odyssey^3
prototype, but externally it was very different. The keyboard did indeed have more
keys than the Odyssey^2/Philips G700, but they were still made from a flat plastic
membrane keyboard, instead of from physically clickable keys. Unlike the American
prototype, there was no built-in joystick holder.
The Philips Videopac + G7400 could play four types of cartridges.
(1) All the standard Odyssey^2 / Philips G7000 cartridges. The backward compatibility
would ensure that many Odyssey owners would upgrade to this system and still be
able to use all their old games.
(2) A series of remakes, in which popular Odyssey^2/Philips G7000 games were re-
released with high resolution, beautifully rendered background graphics, similar
in quality to what one would see on a Colecovision. If these game were played on
a regular Odyssey^2/Philips G7000 the game would play just like the classic
version, but the high-res background graphics would not be visible.
(3) A series of totally new Odyssey games. These had standard Odyssey foreground
graphics but also had high resolution background graphics. If these game were
played on a regular Odyssey^2/Philips G7000 the game would play correctly, but the
high-res background graphics would not be visible.
(4) A series of totally new Odyssey^3/Philips G7400 only games that could only be
played on the Odyssey^3 or G7400. These games not only had hi-res background
graphics, but they had hi-res foreground graphics, scrolling screens, multiple
screens and the ability for more complex gameplay. Only four such games were
ever made: Norseman, Helicopter Rescue, Trans-American Ralley and the Home
Computer Module.
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* What's new with the Odyssey^2 today ? *
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O^2 Multicart
-------------
After years of clamoring for a multi-cart of their own, O^2 owners finally had their
wishes answered by John Dondzilla (pcjohn@monmouth.com). His O^2 multicart not only
included almost all the standard American releases, it also included a number of the
European-only releases, as well as the UR "Power Lords" and "Clay Pigeon" videopacs.
http://www.monmouth.com/~pcjohn/
A New Odyssey^2 Videogame! - AMOK!
----------------------------------
John Dondzilla has provided O^2 owners with what they have been clamoring for - a new
O^2 cartridge! The name is AMOK! and at last you can play a fast paced action O^2
game which also gives you more than 1 life! In AMOK!, you are a lone human trying to
find your way through the mazes of a huge space station. Sentry robots are running
berzerk, trying to kill you at every turn. If that's not bad enough, the evil,
indestructible SMILEYBOT will stop at nothing to get you ! AMOK! features 12 mazes
with increasing difficulty levels.
You can buy an AMOK! cartridge for your Odyssey 2 system for $20. Contact John
Dondzilla for details via E-Mail, pcjohn@monmouth.com The game binary will be posted
soon on his web site for use with Dan Boris's O^2 emulator.
O^2 PC Emulator
---------------
In Fall 1996, Dan Boris (dboris@erols.com, dan.boris@coat.com) began work on an
IBM-PC compatible emulator for the Odyssey^2 and its games. This was a most
impressive acomplishment, as there is practically no technical information on the
O^2 available. He thus studied the system to back engineer how it worked, and
figured out how to do it on his own.
His webpage http://atarihq.com/danb/ doesn't provide Odyssey^2 cartridge ROMS, but
many are available at: /vault/o2roms-AM.shtml
This site has many very rare O^2 ROMS, including Clay Piegon, Demon Attack, Looney
Balloon, and Morse.
New games discovered in Europe
------------------------------
In late 1996 Marco Kerstens obtained a set of about 100 Videopac chips, that had been
purchased at a Dutch fleamarket in Eindhoven, the home of Philips Electronics. They
turned out to be a collection of Videopac games on EPROMs. Some later detective work
discovered that Philips employees often copied Videopac games for their friends and
colleagues. An examination of the EPROMS showed that they included mostly Philips
games, 3 Parker Brothers games, and both of the Imagic games. However, the
unanticipated surprise was that there were a few totally unknown games in this set!
Carl J. Gade's (cjgade@vestfoldnett.no) excellent Odyssey^2/Philips Videopac web page
has this to say (http://www.videopac.com/index.htm):
"Two of these games were made by a company called GST-Video.
This name is also present in some of the Videopac Plus games,
such as Super Bee, Norseman, and Blobbers. At this time it is
unknown how this name was related to Philips. One of the
GST-games has a title-screen, which shows the name 'Jake.
The second game is listed on a little piece of paper that
came with the EPROMs as a 'simulation game' by GST-Video.
Unfortunately, I have not been able to get this game to work....
Two more, 'new' games were found in the set of EPROMS. The
first is listed as 'Laser', but it turns out this probably
is not the right name of the game. About a year after the find
of the EPROMs two more remarkable finds were reported. One
concerns the find of a Videopac multi cart, or game switching
device. In this device a PROM was found labelled 'Robot City'.
The game turned out to be 'Laser'. The same name, Robot City,
also turned up in the second find, by Rikard Ljunkvist, of
what may be a real prototype. The second new game is listed
as a 'catch game' (again, no actual title is known). So, all
in all, four games were discovered that had not been known to
the Videopac collectors community before....
With the very kind help of Markus Gietzen and Dan Boris the
games have been rescued from possible decay. ROM dumps have
been made, which can be used for multicarts and emulators.
Hopefully you will soon be able to enjoy these games."
New games discovered in Brazil
------------------------------
In recent years Brazil has turned out to be a great source of information on rare
games for the O^2. A Brazilian videogame magazine, "Micro & V?deo", December 1984,
#11, previewed an Odyssey^2 game that was never released. Entitled "A Turma da
M?nica" ["M?nica's Gang"), it was planned to be based on comic characters that were
very famous in Brazil at the time. The magazine displayed drawings of 4 stages in
the game. Set to be programmed in Brazil, this game would have been unique to that
country. No prototype has yet been found.
More exciting was the discovery of "Clay Pigeon". Not proto- types, but the actual
cartridges themselves were found in Brazil. me went from total. This game lets you
control an animated rifleman (an 8-bit Charlton Heston?) that took aim at clay pigeons
(clay discs shot at for target practice). A nice touch was that when things went
poorly, your character actually had an animated temper tantrum! Even nicer, this UR
game is now available on John Dondzilla's O^2 multicart, so O^2 gamers everywhere can
now enjoy this game.
In general, I'd like to reccomend William Cassidy's WWW page on O^2 games in Brazil.
It can be accessed at: http://www.classicgaming.com/o2home/brazil/o2brazil.html
And although I never would have expected it, someone has discovered yet another
previously unknown Odyssey^2 game, and from the looks of the graphics and manual, it's
a rather advanced one at that. Entitled "Comando Noturno", Marcelo Ribeiro translated
an article about this game from Issue #8 of 'Odyssey Aventura', the Brazilian O^2
fanclub magazine.
You are in a modern battle, piloting a fighter. Your mission
is to bomb an enemy target in the darkest night hour, and to
do this, you'll have to fly using only the instruments. On
the screen is your fighter panel with all the instruments.
In your hands, the joystick works as a real flightstick and
the keyboard gives the flight instruments' readings. The board
computer takes the readings and identifies the aircrafts and
anti-aircraft batteries that you find during the flight. Are
they allies or enemies? Your first mission is easy. You have
to leave the base, fly to the target and bomb it. Then, return
to base and wait for your next orders. In the meantime, the
command reserves you more complicated missions, where you have
to cross the regions where the enemy forces are ready to
intercept your flight. Together with them are the allied
forces which can confuse you in the darkness. Your fighter
is modern and is very well equipped, but you need to be very
good to operate it. You need to accurately calculate the fuel
you have and use it wisely. Your fighter can fly very high and
at very high speed, but a drop at high speed can be fatal.
And don't forget your landing gear; you must retract it after
you take-off and put it down before landing. You do it all
using the keyboard. Be aware of the reading of the distance
to the target: you can't come back to the base before you
reach it. Don't forget to choose the best gun for your strategy.
The cannon will help you hit the enemy fighters. The bombs
will annihilate the anti-aircraft batteries in the ground.
But be smart: if you use all the ammunition before reaching
the target, you can't complete your mission. And the command
is merciless: you can't come back. "Comando Noturno!" is a game
for pilots who want excitement and who love danger. Enter this
battle and check it out!
Programming the Odyssey^2
---------------------------
S?ren Gust (sgust@ithh.infoserv.de) has been working on bringing to light the details
of the Odyssey^2's operating system. He has kindly produced a very detailed and
technical webpage for the use of classic videogames afficianados, which contains
information on the BIOS of the O^2. The information was compiled by disassembling
the BIOS and some games for the Videopac G7000, and by running small programs on the
machine and on the O^2 emulator by Dan Boris. You can find his homepage, "The BIOS
of the Videopac G7000 / Odyssey 2" at:
http://soeren.infoserv.de/g7000/bios/bios.html
*****************************************************************
* Technical specs *
*****************************************************************
Dan Boris's web page contains a vast amount of technical information concerning the
Odyssey^2. Those interested in the details can check this out at:
http://atarihq.com/danb/o2doc.htm
A short summary is provided here: The O^2 is based on the Intel 8048 microcontroller.
The 8048 is clocked at approximately 1.78 MHz. The 8048 has 64 bytes of internal RAM,
and 1K of internal ROM that contains the system BIOS. The 8048 has 2, 8-bit I/O ports,
an internal timer/counter, an interrupt input, and 2 single bit testable inputs.
Besides that RAM that is internal to the processor there are 256 bytes of RAM external
to the processor. The VDC can generate 4 different types of graphics 'objects', a
background grid, single characters, quad characters, and sprites. The VDC can draw 4
independent sprites. Each sprite is 8x8 pixels in one color and can be positioned
freely anywhere on the screen. The VDC can generate up to 12 foreground characters
from it's internal character set of 64 characters.
*****************************************************************
* Game list and rarity ratings *
*****************************************************************
Rarity:
C = Common
U = Uncommon
R = Rare
ER = Extremely rare
UR = Ultra Rare
P = Only exists as confirmed prototype
NR = Never released/No known prototypes. Games in this category may
have been advertised or planned, but apparently never even made
it to the prototype stage.
*****************************************************************
* Magnavox/Philips Odyssey^2 *
*****************************************************************
Model number / name Rarity
------------------------------------------------------------
AC9400 Speedway!/Spin-Out!/Crypto-Logic! C
AJ9401 Blackjack! R
AJ9402 Football! U
AJ9403 Sub Chase!/Armored Encounter! C
AJ9404 Bowling!/Basketball! U
AJ9405 Math-a-Magic!/Echo! R
AC9406 Computer Intro! U
AJ9407 Matchmaker!/Buzzword!/Logix! C
AJ9408 Baseball! C
AJ9410 Computer Golf! U
AJ9411 Cosmic Conflict! C
AJ9412 Take the Money and Run! U
AC9413 I've Got Your Number! R
AK9414 Invaders From Hyperspace! C
AK9415 Thunderball! R
AK9416 Showdown in 2100 A.D. C
AK9417 War of Nerves! U
AK9418 Alpine Skiing! U
AC9419 Out of This World!/Helicopter Rescue! R
This game is not the same as Videopac#59 "Helicopter
Rescue", which was only released in Europe. Only
the titles are similar.
AK9420 Hockey!/Soccer! U
AK9421 Dynasty! U
AA9422 Volleyball! R
AA9423 Electronic Table Soccer! R
AC9424 Pocket Billiards R
AA9425 Pachinko! R
AA9426 Casino Slot Machine! U
AA9427 Blockout!/Breakdown! C
AA9428 Alien Invaders - Plus! C
AC9429 The Quest for the Rings! U
AB9430 U.F.O.! U
AB9431 Conquest of the World! U
AM9432 Monkeyshines! R
AC9433 Keyboard Creations ER
AC9434 The Great Wall Street Fortune Hunt R
AC9435 K.C. Munchkin! C
AC9436 Freedom Fighters! C
AC9437 Pick Axe Pete! U
AC9438 S.I.D. the Spellbinder (voice) ER
AC9439 Nimble Numbers Ned! (voice) ER
AC9440 Type & Tell! (voice) R
AC9441 Smithereens (voice) ER
AC9422 K.C.'s Krazy Chase! (voice) U
AC9433 P.T. Barnum's Acrobats (voice) ER
AC9445 Attack of the Timelord! (voice) R
AC9446 Turtles (voice) ER
AC9447 Killer Bees! (voice) ER
AC9448 Power Lords UR
06AV94__ Comando Noturno [Night Commando] UR Brazil only
06AV94__ Clay Pigeon UR Brazil only
?????? Sherlock Holmes P
?????? Pink Panther NR
?????? A Turma da M?nica [M?nica's Gang] NR Brazil only
??7605 The Voice of Odyssey^2 R Voice and music synthesizer.
*****************************************************************
* Additional notes on rare cartridges *
*****************************************************************
Odyssey^2 "Sherlock Holmes" P
Only one copy of this Master Strategy games has been found by a collector,
Jayson Hill. It may be a completed game, but is unplayable without the
instructions (which have never been found). The idea was to match a weapon
with a location, and you could gain information that would reduce the
possibilities. The in-house programmer for this game was Bob Cheezem.
Odyssey^2 "Pink Panther" P
Magnavox bought the rights to this game to produce for the Odyssey^2, but
it never was released. Bob Harris writes: ?This was to be released as part
of the Probe 2000 intro, as a cartridge for ColecoVision, 2600, and Odyssey2.
This was the first time that North American Philips had purchased licensing
rights, so we took this as a sign that they were committed to the project.
The Coleco version was programmed in house by Randy Green. The Odyssey2/3
version by Ed Averitt (the consultant who wrote the lion's share of the
Odyssey games). The 2600 version was farmed out to some outfit in Indianapolis
(I think). When the folks doing the 2600 version failed to produce on time,
N.A.P pulled the plug on the games.? I believe that both the Odyssey^2 and
Colecovision prototypes were playable, but never completed.
Odyssey^2 "Monica's Gang" NR
A Brazilian videogame magazine, "Micro & V?deo", December 1984, #11, previewed
an Odyssey^2 that was never released. Entitled "A Turma da M?nica " ["M?nica's
Gang"), it was planned to be based on comic characters that were very famous in
Brazil at the time. The magazine displayed drawings of 4 stages in the game.
Set to be programmed in Brazil, this game would have been unique to that
country. No prototype has yet been found
GE7710 Odyssey^3 Command Center P
GE7610 Odyssey^3 Voice Module P
Odyssey^3 Modem P
Odyssey^3 Baseball P
The gameplay and foreground graphics are identical to Odyssey^2 baseball, although
the action was highlighted by high-resolution background graphics of a baseball field.
A lazy man's conversion, one can see that little work was being put into sports games.
The situation obviously called for a totally new game, and this poor upgrade wouldn't
have helped sell any systems if it had ever been released.
Odyssey^3 Killer Bees P
As an American release, this only exists as a prototype. The prototype for the
American version has not yet been found, but I have seen a videotape of this game
in action. An altered version of this game was released in Europe (UR), the
difference being that the background graphics are completely different. In the
American prototype video we see a colorful geometric background, while in the European
release we see a yellow honey comb, and several large cartoonish Killer Bees. Bob
Harris explains: "We found that the colorful geometric background compeletely obscured
the game play elements, so it was redesigned to be a yellow honeycomb and bees around
the boundary. The excellent artwork was done by Ed Hensley, who I believe still is a
commercial artist in the Knoxville area."
Odyssey^3 Attack of the Timelord P
As an American release, this only exists as a prototype. However, this game was
released in Europe as "Terrahawks +" (ER). Oddly, two large stars blink in the
American version, yet are static in the European version.
Odyssey^3 Freedom Fighters P
As an American release, this only exists as a prototype. However, this game was
released in Europe as "Freedom Fighters +" (ER). One notable difference is that the
background graphics for this American version are not used on the European version.
Instead these background graphics (of a big red floating asteroid and a starfield)
are used on the European Videopac "Satellite Attack +" which is the European
Odyssey^3/Philips G7400 version of "U.F.O.!" The G7400 version of "Freedom
Fighters" features a background with several planets (one with rings) and a starfield.
Odyssey^3 Flashpoint P
Flashpoint was to be a "Robotron" type sci-fi action game, which utilized both
joysticks. One joystick allowed you to manuveur your tank around a city, while the
other fired your weapon in any direction direction. When your tank came close to a
part of the city that was under attack, a "flashpoint", the screen would change to
give you a close up view of the area in which the fighting would take place. While
working prototypes of this game were produced, they were never sold anywhere. I am
unsure why Philips didn't release this fine game for the Philips G7400 Videopac +.
*****************************************************************
* Probe 2000 / Odyssey games for Colecovision *
*****************************************************************
War Room R
This was the only Odyssey game that ever made it to the Colecovision market. It
was sold under the label 'Probe 2000'.
Power Lords P
The Colecovision version of this game was advertised with drawings of screen shots,
but it was never completed. The Odyssey^2 version was commercially released. Bob
Harris writes "The Coleco version of this was pretty much a disaster...The original
programmer (who shall remain anonymous) did a poor job, and stopped showing up for
work when the deadline got close. I took over the programming and for the most part
was able to get it to not crash as often, though it embarassingly died during a
'coming out' party we held for publishers in New York."
Lord of the Dungeons P
Also known as "Creatures and Caverns", this was another of Rex Battenberg?s games,
and was inspried by Dungeons and Dragons. Bob Harris writes: ?The player could
assemble a party of six characters that explored a dungeon maze, battled monsters,
and gained experience. The key element was that the cartridge was to have battery
backed RAM so that player could return to a game. We had a lot of problems with the
RAM getting corrupted, which was a primary reason this was not released.
Pink Panther P
Programmed by Randy Green. This game was supposed to comeout on multiple platforms:
The Odyssey^2, Atari 2600 and Colecovision. When the Atari 2600 version failed to be
produced on time, NAP pulled the plug on the project.
*****************************************************************
* Probe 2000 / Odyssey games for Atari *
*****************************************************************
Probe 2000 - Atari 2600 "Pink Panther" P
Probe 2000 - Atari 2600 "War Room" NR
Probe 2000 - Atari 2600 "Power Lords NR
Probe 2000 - Atari 2600 "Lord of the Dungeon" NR
Probe 2000 planned to release four games on the Atari 2600: Pink Panther, Power
Lords, War Room, and Lord of the Dungeon. Collector Steve Averitt owns the only
known prototype of the Atari 2660 Pink Panther, and he wrote a review of it for
the newsletter "The 2600 Connection." The review, with screenshots, is available
on Tim Duarte's website at: http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Lair/9260/pinkp.html
*****************************************************************
* Imagic games for Odyssey^2 *
*****************************************************************
Model number / name Rarity
------------------------------------------------------------
Atlantis ER
Demon Attack ER
Demon Attack Plus UR
Demon Attack Plus was a limited release for the Philips G7400, known
only to have been sold in France and Portugal. One known copy has a
label showing that it was released by To Tec International, and licensced
by Imagic. In addition to the regular release of these Imagic games,
they were also sold in some European countries under the Philips label.
*****************************************************************
* Parker Brothers Videopac games *
*****************************************************************
Model number / name Rarity
------------------------------------------------------------
Popeye UR
Q*Bert UR
Super Cobra UR
Frogger ER
Tutankham NR
While Popeye and Super Cobra both work on American Odyssey^2 units, Frogger and Q*Bert
do not. Frogger shows the title screen, but the two play screens (the first being the
road and the second being the river) are totally messed up and unplayable. Q*bert
reportedly works fine on a few machines (Maybe about 10% ?) while on most other machines
it is non-controllable. These games were also released in some European countries under
the Philips label. Tutankham was advertised in some German videogame magazines, but was
never released. There is a report by one person that it was once sold in Brazil, but
others have not been able to confirm this. No commercial cartridges or prototypes have
yet been found.
*****************************************************************
* Philips Videopacs for the G7000, G7200, or G7400 *
*****************************************************************
In the following list, if there is a '+' sign next to the Videopac
number, then this means that there was a '+' version (equivalent to
Odyssey^3) of this game released.
Videopac number / name Rarity (followed by American version.)
------------------------------------------------------------
Philips G7000 ER
Videogame console; equivalent to an Odyssey^2.
Philips G7200 UR
Videogame console with built-in B/W monitor.
Philips G7400 UR
Videopac '+' console, equivalent to the unreleased Odyssey^3 Command Center.
01+ Race/Spinout/Cryptogram C Speedway/Spinout/Cryptologic
02 Pairs/Space Rendezvous/Logic R Matchmaker/Out Of This World/Logix
These games were released in the US, but not together on one cartridge.
03 American Football R Football
04 Air-Sea War/Battle R Armored Encounter/Subchase
05 Blackjack R Las Vegas Blackjack
06 Ten Pin Bowling/Basketball R Bowling/Basketball
07 Mathematician/Echo R Math-a-Magic/Buzzword
08 Baseball R
09 Computer Programmer R Computer Intro
10 Golf R
11+ Cosmic Conflict R
12 Take the Money and Run R
13 Playschool Math UR I've Got Your Number
14 Gunfighter R Showdown in 2100 A.D.
15 Samurai ER Dynasty
16 Depth Charge/Marksman R Never released in US
17 Chinese Logic R Never released in US
18 Laser War R Invaders From Hyperspace
19 Catch the Ball/Noughts and Crosses R Never released in US
20+ Stone Sling R Smithereens
21 Secret of the Pharoahs ER Never released in US
22 Space Monster R Alien Invaders - Plus!
23 Las Vegas Gambling R Casino Slot Machine
24 Flipper Game R Thunderball!
25 Skiing R Alpine Skiing
26 Basket Game R Pachinko
27 Electronic Table Football R Electronic Table Soccer!
28 Electronic Volleyball R
29 Dam Buster R Blockout/Breakdown
30 Battlefield R War of Nerves
31 Musician (by Sierra) ER Never released in US
32 Labyrinth Game/Supermind R Never released in US
33 Jumping Acrobats R P.T. Barnum's Acrobats
34+ Satellite Attack ER U.F.O.!
35 Electronic Billiards R Pocket Billiards
36 Electronic Hockey/Electronic Soccer R
37 Monkeyshines R
38 Munchkin R K.C. Munchkin
39+ Freedom Fighters R
40 Microcat / 4 in 1 Row R Never released in US
41 Conquest of the World ER
42 The Quest for the Rings ER
43+ Pick Axe Pete R
44 Crazy Chase R K.C.'s Krazy Chase
45 Morse ER Never released in US
46 The Great Wall Street Fortune Hunt ER
47 The Mousing Cat / Adversaries ER Never released in US
48 Backgammon ER Never released in US
49 Turtles ER
50 Super Bee UR Never released in US
51+ Terrahawks ER Attack Of The Timelord
52+ Killer Bees ER
53+ Nightmare UR Never released in US
54+ Looney Balloon ER Never released in US
55+ Neutron Star ER Never released in US
56+ Norseman UR Never released in US - G7400 only
57 Blobbers ER Never released in US
58+ Air Battle UR Never released in US
59+ Helicopter Rescue UR Never released in US - G7400 only
60+ Trans-American Rally UR Never released in US - G7400 only
A Newscaster UR Keyboard Creations
V Kinder Im Verkehr UR
A German released only. An Odyssey^2 traffic safety game for kids.
Only a few hundred are rumored to exist.
c7010 Video Chess Module UR
The G7000 didn't have enough memory and computing power for a chess
program, so Philips equipped the chess cartridge with an add-on computer
module that sat on top of the G7000 console. The module got its power
from the main console.
c7420 G7400 Home Computer Module UR
A BASIC programming module.
*****************************************************************
* Jopac Videopacs for the Philips Jopac (G7400) *
*****************************************************************
These games were only released in France; All of these are UR.
Syracuse - A ricochot" game. You must catch sunrays (dots)
with a mirror and "shoot" them at a certain angle to a city to
destroy the houses.
Chex Maxime - A platform game. It is a restaurant with three
stores, and you are the waiter and you have to serve people in
a certain time limit.
Exojet Plus
Billiards Plus (Pocket Billiards Plus)
Catapult Plus (Smithereens Plus)
Motor Crash
*****************************************************************
* Credits *
*****************************************************************
Robert D. Kaiser kaiser@biosys.net , kaiser@physiology.pnb.sunysb.edu
Thanks goes out to all the kind people listed below for their help and information.
Daniel Boris dan.boris@coat.com , dboris@erols.com
William Cassidy williamc@gamespy.com
John Dondzila pcjohn@monmouth.com
Carl J. Gade cjgade@vestfoldnett.no
Jerry Greiner jerryg@hevanet.com
Bob Harris nitlion@mindspring.com
W. Jayson Hill jlhill@ix.netcom.com
Keita Iida keita@mindspring.com
Marco Kerstens m.kerstens@bw.kun.nl
H. Danny Oosterhoff danny@ad1.mey.nl
Matthew Pritchard matthewp@netcom.com
Hans Reutter reutter@coil.com
Marcelo Ribeiro mribeiro@bridge.com.br
and everyone at Digital Press!